Black Friday: the day people stampede into stores to buy cheap goods. There are horror stories on the internet of people being run over or fighting over TVs. People set up tents early before stores open to try to grab the best deals, but it prompts us to ask, is really worth all the trouble?

“Some people think you have to be there early to be able to get a lot of deals,” freshman Maddie Cooke said. “Black Friday doesn’t stop after two. Black Friday is the entire day. It’s pretty much the entire weekend. I don’t think I missed out by going ‘late’ for Black Friday shopping.”

It is now becoming increasingly popular to go the night of Black Friday—or in actuality, on Thursday—but go a few hours later to avoid the crowds.

“I went a couple hours later so it wasn’t crazy or anything,” junior Parker Nenonen said. “I went there to buy a PS4 because it was like $300 for the console, the game and the controller. It was sorta worth it since I got a free controller out of it, but that was about it. So, other than that, I don’t know if it was really worth it.”

With all the crowds, people try to use a little strategy when navigating the crowds.

“I saw a mom and her son with matching turkey headbands so they wouldn’t get lost in the crowd. The mom had strategically planned this so she could send him off into the deals and she wouldn’t lose him,” sophomore Hannah Hoffmann said.

Hoffmann also does not believe Black Friday is worth all the trouble people go to in order to get to good deals.

“I was there to buy groceries on Friday at Walmart,” Hoffmann said. “I looked at some of the stuff and it really wasn’t worth it at all. We showed up a little after 6 p.m. and talked to one of the cashiers, and she said the when the doors opened at six, the place was swamped and the parking lot was really full. All the deals went pretty quickly.”

Critics of Black Friday believe it contradicts the warm, selfless beliefs Thanksgiving brings.

“I don’t understand the point of it because really Thanksgiving is about being thankful for your family and everything then you have to go out and be really materialistic. I don’t understand the point,” sophomore Nora Penhallegon.

Employees working on Black Friday have to run around to manage lines quickly and check people out fast to prevent customers from waiting too long.

“The strangest thing was seeing all the people working there running around. I feel like it took a lot of patience to have to work all night at Target on Black Friday,” sophomore Mary Claire Moriarity said.

Despite the criticism, Black Friday remains a big part of American culture.

“Really Black Friday is the best workout after eating all that Thanksgiving food, shoving people to the ground for that Xbox you want,” Moriarity said.